Joy of Home Wine Making Read Online Free PDF Page A

little yeastie beasties are passing gas, you know. Bothers some people but not others.
    You also want to keep it warm, but not too warm (60-80°F), and you don’t want to move it around. You don’t want it near vinegar, solvents, cleaning supplies, or your pile of dirty socks.
    Panic-stricken already?
    Look, it’s OK. Do the best you can and don’t worry. A corner of the kitchen or the back of a closet that isn’t airtight is just fine. A cupboard is fine. A basement is OK for later, but it’s not the best place right now. The attic is right out. Look around. You’ll find a place. If the ideal place gets too much light, put a big cardboard box over your batch.
    Equipment:
1 one-gallon glass jug—an ex-apple juice, cranberry juice, or wine jug that hasn’t been used to store kerosene, vinegar, or nuclear waste
1 rubber band
1 4×4 in. square of heavy kitchen plastic wrap
1 medium-sized food grade funnel, plastic or metal
a long stick or rod for stirring (you can whittle down a wood spoon, but a long chopstick works just fine, too)
later: another gallon jug, 4 or 5 clean wine bottles, corks, a corker, and a 3-4 ft. length of clear plastic tubing from an aquarium shop or winemaking supply shop. For the latter, see complete description in Siphon and Racking Tube.
    Ingredients:
1 12 oz. can frozen apple juice (any brand)
1 6 oz. can frozen lemonade or the juice of two lemons, strained (don’t use bottled lemon juice, ugh)
1 lb. of sugar (two cups) or 1½ lb. mild honey

1 gallon of water, boiled and cooled while covered
1 packet of wine yeast (champagne or Montrachet)
½ teaspoon pectic enzyme (optional but recommended)
5 Campden tablets (optional but recommended)
    N OTES
    Later on in your winemaking career I will encourage you to use a proper rubber bung and air lock instead of the rubber band and plastic (to keep the air out and let the gas out of the bottle), but this is your first gallon, and this method should be OK.
    The wine yeast, pectic enzyme, and Campden tablets can be purchased at your local wine supply or brewing supply store (or from any of the many mail order places listed in the back of this book). So can the rubber bung and air lock and any number of other interesting gadgets.
    Wine yeast costs about fifty cents a packet. Don’t use bread yeast or beer yeast. They don’t come out just right, although they will work in a pinch. Wine yeast is best because it doesn’t make “off” flavors, and it tolerates higher alcohol content. One packet makes one to five gallons of wine.
    The pectin naturally present in fruit is nice for making jelly but not for making wine. It can create a harmless, but less than aesthetic, haze. Pectic enzyme eats the pectin, helping the wine to clear as it ferments. If the idea of the pectic enzyme is too complicated or weird to you, leave it out for right now, but really, this is not a big deal.
    The Campden tablets are for sterilizing the jug. They are sodium metabisulphite. If you are sensitive to sulphites, don’t use these. Many winemakers use them to sterilize the juices in the wine as well, but we don’t need to worry about that so much in this case. If you can’t or don’t want to use Campden tablets (some people are very sensitive to this chemical, though it’s perfectly safe for most), I’ll give you an alternative method as we go along.
    Many jugs these days are actually 4 liters, somewhat less than a U.S. gallon. Try to find a gallon jug, but don’t worry if you can’t. It won’t make any real difference in this recipe.
     
    FINALLY: Ignore everything else in the wine supply store until you know what you are doing and have finished this book. If you must look, don’t buy. Yet. Later on, you can buy as much as you want. Talk to the clerks, who are usually the owners, and often possess a wealth of knowledge, which they will cheerfully pass on to you.
    P ROCEDURE
    Boil most of the water in a stainless steel or enamel pot and let it cool, covered. In most areas,